The are ‘more and better’ jobs across Europe with women workers the main beneficiaries, according to a report by the European Foundation of the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).
The report, which examines patterns of employment expansion in Europe between 1995-2006, concludes that most EU states have generated both more and better jobs. The proportion of working age population in active employment has risen from 60% to 66% in the founder member states, with total employment growing by more than 22 million jobs.
The employment situation of women has also improved. The majority of new jobs in the EU over the last decade have been taken by women and most of these jobs have been of high or medium-to-high quality, the report said.
However, it warned that the rate of progress had led to increasing difficulties for low-skilled workers or workers displaced in declining industries.
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Jorma Karppinen, Eurofound’s director, said: “This can mean fewer employment opportunities for low-skilled workers at a time when the decline of new medium-quality jobs creates an obstacle to upward mobility in the employment structure.”
According to the report, the best performing countries in terms of job quantity and quality were Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden.
